The purpose of VOICE is to provide a social and political virtual hub in the heart of Canberra, establishing similar infrastructure systems in cities and towns across Australia, essentially connecting the people of Australia on a social and political sense. VOICE serves as a social and political outlet for the public to engage with. The issue that VOICE addresses within the capital/parliamentary/government sense is the issue of class division between the people of Australia created by those with power and authority. Generally, the public refuse to involve themselves with politics and government issues as the process is confusing and information is often misleading through the media and other outlets. It is often difficult to find the answers that people seek, as to either (hypothetically) influence voting, polling, introduction of new laws, proposed infrastructure projects and developments that directly effect the people.
VOICE provides intelligent integrated virtual technologies in which gives the opportunity to people to discover the relevant local and national political information that would potentially (and hypothetically again) directly effect them, or in which they could directly influence change for themselves or others. It provides the opportunity to virtually socialise and immerse ones self within the current (and possibly past) politics of the Australian Government System. This is opposed to sitting at home and watching the news, or surfing the web. It gives people the sense of direct action and direct democracy, being given direct access to a virtual government. The information is interactive and simple to use, provided to the public for everyday use. The technologies integrated allow people to explore political information either publicly or privately. Software used would take advantage of the advances with computer based voice recognition and communication, as we are now seeing with Apples iPhone (what will they think of next).
The element of presence is established through its identity and built form, taking influence from a few architectural languages that the current capital is identified with. This creates a virtual connection and function for the people of Australia to those who govern them. The ability to voice concern or protest is structured and informed. The ability to leave these "voices" is present with the technologies that are provided. Lets take this to a "hypothetical question" (as the theme describes) -
"What if, with the current "Occupy the World" issue which addresses the peoples concern for Wall Streets demise (and similar entities around the globe) on the economy and decline in employment and quality of life, that cities and towns in Australia could connect to the relevant issues and information on the topic at home and abroad, giving the people a more informed decision as to whether or not to join the protest/movement? What if, the people of all cities and towns with these concerns could voice their opinion together, and possibly come to a resolve? Or what if, the people with these concerns could address the government/parliament within a virtual system that the government/parliament respond to accordingly within question time, or another designated time to connect back to the people?"
This would ease tension/s that arise between the general public and the people of power and authority, by providing informed responses, decisions, and possible action/s. Again, this is opposed to just watching the news or reading the paper or surfing the web, that may lead to ill informed decisions and opinions based on political issues.
By providing these opportunities to the people and the public of Australia, it could (hypothetically) change the way that we respond to government policy and control. It could create more faith in the system, allowing the people to (hypothetically) connect to the government/parliament, giving the people of Australia more of an informed say on whether the current government system is working effectively for them or not. This isn't necessarily talking to the Prime Minister directly, but talking to the government as a whole. The people with the power and authority not afraid to communicate with the public on a more social and interactive level.
Again, hypothetically, say in a small town, the national government has proposed and approved infrastructure development for a major highway to run through the town, yet the people of that town have been ill informed, and subsequently created negative opinions based on this ill informed information being communicated to the people. Rather then create a webpage or simply talk to the media, where politicians or authority never truly respond to in depth, people could virtually talk to the government and interact with the plans for development. Opinions, concerns and the like could be left for the people of authority to hold and respond to accordingly, to again improve peoples faith in the system, which would lead to positive results for all (or most). Again, this is opposed to just viewing a set of plans or text explaining the situation, this is social and interactive, direct action taken by the public to the people "in charge" (virtually).
Another opportunity that exists with this proposal is the interaction with Australian Politics and Government with tourists. Tourists who come to Canberra and other Australian cities to try and understand and identify the meaning of our government and parliament system can immerse themselves in this facility, providing informed information and detail of our rich political history.
Post Presentation Resolution:
It has become apparent that a few elements of my design can be more resolved in terms of purpose, function and structural integrity.
Firstly, the pedestrian access and subsequent infrastructure was designed and implemented to provide a sense of realistic accessibility, although the engineering and general design was not completely resolved. Three issues are structural support, safety and functional performance, which have now been identified and addressed in the following image, which uses green walls for barriers to enclose the bridge paths for safety, as well as architectural language that is continued throughout the precinct -
Secondly, after looking over the sections of the VOICE building, it became apparent that the building would require a basement level and access both internally and externally. This would house short term parking facilities for some staff, as well as general delivery and maintenance services, which are described in the following images -
And thirdly, the original ideation of a private booth/kiosk system was partially resolved, where the individual patron can immerse themselves in digital reality/virtual world, being able to privately talk to the virtual entity to discover what the individual seeks to find (similar technology would compare to Siri from Apple, and the relevant information displayed on a screen and user touch screen to control). The following images describe this virtual entity and its functionality as a resolved product -
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